This doesn’t mean we can simply eat the reserves out and overlook economic returns just because we’re solving current problems, Russia President Vladimir Putin said in an exclusive interview with TASS

VLADIVOSTOK, November 14. /TASS/. The Russian government is ready to unseal the accumulated reserves if the economic situation deteriorates, but plans to invest the funds only on condition of economic returns, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an exclusive interview with TASS.

Putin recalled that the Russian authorities had been discussing the possibility to use money from the National Welfare Fund on key infrastructural projects long before the current drop in oil prices.

“We planned all those things previously, too, and now that the market situation is getting worse, we’ll get down to them. Still this doesn’t mean we can simply eat the reserves out and overlook economic returns just because we’re solving current problems. That’s not the way for us to go,” he said.

“If funds are utilized, the spending has several target areas. One of them is infrastructure. That’s where we presuppose to invest the money from the Welfare Fund,” Putin said.

“A supplementary automobile ring road around Moscow will be built. Many railway level crossings will be overhauled and new routes for the eastward haulage of cargoes will be built or upgraded. I mean the Trans-Siberian Railroad and the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Or take the high-speed railroads, as well as development of ports and airports,” he said.

“We said it two years ago,” Putin said. The Russian president, however, disagreed with the viewpoint that the country’s economy should be sped up with funds from reserves now.